472 Scientific Intelligence. 



near those of an allylpiperidine. This oil readily underwent 

 reduction and gave almost the theoretical quantity of a base the 

 hydrochlorate of which was a white crystalline permanent salt. 

 The cadmium-double iodide was prepared, and like that of conine, 

 was an oily liquid solidifying on contact with a crystal-fragment. 

 On re-crystallization it gave well formed crystals exactly resem- 

 bling the conine salt, fusing at 117°-118°, and affording coinci- 

 dent numbers on analysis. From the mother liquors a base was 

 obtained which had the odor and solubility of conine, and 

 whfch boiled at 166°-170°. The hydrochlorate made from this 

 formed brilliant needles fusing at 203°. The author believes 

 therefore that the new base is probably identical with conine. — 

 Ber. Berl. Chem. Ges., xix, 439-441, March, 1886. g. f. b. 



7. On the Chemical Action of Bacterium aceti. — Brown has 

 studied the chemical action of pure cultivations of Bacterium 

 ■aceti upon various organic substances. The ferment used was 

 originally taken from the surface of a beer which had been ex- 

 posed to the air in a warm place till acetic fermentation had set 

 in. It was inoculated into the first of a series of 10 test tubes, 

 containing a sterilized solution of 2 per cent ethyl alcohol in 

 yeast water ; an inoculation being made to the next tube as soon 

 as a visible growth was observed. Ethyl and propyl alcohols 

 were readily converted into acetic and propionic acids respect- 

 ively. Dextrose in a 2 per cent solution, yielded gluconic acid. 

 Sucrose in a 4 per cent solution, underwent no change. Manni- 

 tol was completely oxidized by B. aceti and yielded mainly 

 levulose. By sodium amalgam, this levulose as well as that from 

 inulin and invert sugar may be re-converted into mannitol. — J. 

 Chem. Soc, xlix, 172-187, March, 1886. g. f. b. 



II. Geology and Mineralogy. 



1. Note on the occurrence of Olenellus (?) Kjerulfi in 

 America ; by F. G. Matthew. — A good deal of interest attaches 

 to the occurrence of this species in America, as its position in 

 Europe is beneath that of the beds carrying Paradoxides, while 

 in America the genus Olenellus is supposed to belong to the 

 Middle Cambrian — the horizon corresponding to the Olenus- 

 bearing measures of Europe. 



In New Brunswick this species has not been found in the St. 

 John Basin of Cambrian rocks, but it occurs in that of the Kenne- 

 becasis river, where it is associated with a number of species 

 found in the St. John Basin in the bands c and d of Division 

 I. The species are similar and in some cases identical with those 

 of the Menevian Groups of Wales. The band c of the Saint John 

 Basin which corresponds more nearly to the Solva group in its 

 fauna than to the Menevian, has been well explored, and if O. (?) 

 Kjerulfi were common in it, it would probably have been found 

 ere now ; but it has not been met with. If this species were 



